Shoreditch pubs

An interesting pub of bizarre dimensions, seeming, once inside, to expand off in all directions, although in reality it is rather small... Very crowded on Friday nights with Hackney council workers. The actual pub is okay; a straightforward, no-nonsense boozer. But that isn’t really the point. I once met Lemmy in here. Lemmy! Every surface, every beer pump, every pint glass is therefore covered with the stain of greatness. We at Randompubfinder take pride in bringing you reviews from the most bizarre and unique drinking establishments in London and this place is no exception. On descending a staircase down to the basement level below an unremarkable building, you are magically transported to Bavaria. Laid out before you is a large room with trestle tables staffed by fraüleins in traditional frilly costumes with big jugs - of german beer. Punters are encouraged to drink steins of excellent beer, eat traditional Bavarian specialities such as Wurst or Käsespätzle, before downing shots of hallucinogenic schnapps or vodka sherbet concoctions. The beerhouse offers an imaginative and diverse programme of events from oompah bands to the Bavarian Olympics whose games include finger wrestling and carrying beer steins with straight arms. As you can probably guess, the place is popular for office gatherings and any other occasion where mass drunkenness is the aim of the game. Great fun. Painfully trendy. Good breakfasts, and good bagels. The clientele becomes severely annoying after 10 minutes or so, so make sure you have no sharp implements to hand. Reviewer in trendy pub shock! Im not even sure if this can be counted as a pub, looking as it does like a cross between an abandoned office and a 1970s Slovakian restaurant. It has a very off-putting Tennants Purple Tin sign glaring from one window, an art exhibition on one wall, a piano hidden under some sheets, long bare tables in an assortment of sizes, a stage (often used for random entertainment) and a barman everybody seems to have met before, but who nobody can place. A load of tat hangs from the walls, but apart from that the furnishings and dcor are, er, minimal, consisting mainly of heating ducts and some candles. There are a series of extremely weird cold and echoing basement and sub-basement rooms where oddball art and improv music happenings take place. Heating is in the form of one electric fire, which makes a feeble dent in the cavernous chill. And yet despite everything, I dont care how trendy this place is, I find the whole effect rather charmingly bizarre and oddly British, and some of the art and music stuff they put on is worth experiencing. The punters are friendly and yes, the place is FUN. The fart-inducing organic lager is top-notch, too. Battered, green walls, frosted glass, broken bits. Narrow pub mouldering attractively on an abandoned street. Juke Box, pool table, very trendy people. Serves Kronenbourg White, which tastes like alcoholic squeezy lemon. Sort of okay, relaxed, has modelled itself on the Bricklayers Arms on Charlotte Road. Back in the distant past, Shoreditch was outside the city walls, making it home to outrageous entertainments not allowed inside London, such as theatre, pleasure gardens and ladies of the night. The Spread Eagle is a remnant of these remote times, allegedly being the pub in which Shakespeare and Jonson used to drink together, and which until recently used to boast dancing ladies of the exotic variety, and a clientele so hard it could cut diamonds with its eyelashes. But times have changed, Shoreditch has been gentrified and the Spread Eagle has been refurbished. Gone are the gyrating dancers and the salivating maniacs, to be replaced by the artists and clubbers of the New Bohemia, dragging with them their desires to sit on assorted wacky furniture, drink shit overpriced lager and listen to funky chunes. That the Spread Eagle is now safe enough to enter can be considered a victory of sorts; that it isn't worth the effort is a different problem entirely. Yes, its a bar, with all the usual bar mod cons. Finding the entrance is awkward, the interior is predictable ex-warehouse minimalism, with sofas and tables so low that all the change falls out of your trouser pockets. It seems to be aimed as much at the food market as at the humble drinker, which may actually be a good thing in the light of the usual circus seen in UK city centres on a Friday or Saturday night. I was drawn in by the promise of an evening of improvised music, which, despite the other audience members actually being part of the bands, I rather enjoyed. This place has an upstairs and a downstairs, the downstairs being where all the music action is. I sat listening to the music drift by, admiring the swirling ceiling fresco and coveting the delicious food other people were eating. Afterwards, I lounged upstairs in the very relaxed bar area, sipping Belgian beer and feeling, to my surprise, very much at home. Its in Shoreditch, so some of the clientele can get extremely irritating, but thankfully most of them move on pretty quickly to the next slice of zeitgeist nightlife. The food is excellent, as is the beer and wine selection, it opens on a Sunday until midnight (why?) and hosts various fun disco nights, such as the Lunar Lounge. I cant really find it in my heart to dislike this place at all.

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